White House doubles funding request for border crisis

In this June 19, 2014 photo, a Central American migrants emerge from side streets to crowd onto the tracks, as a northbound freight train arrives in the station in Arriaga, Chiapas state, Mexico. Tens of thousands of unaccompanied children have been apprehended crossing the U.S. Mexico border since October. Three-fourths of them are from Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador and most say they are fleeing pervasive gang violence and crushing poverty. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell) less

In this June 19, 2014 photo, a Central American migrants emerge from side streets to crowd onto the tracks, as a northbound freight train arrives in the station in Arriaga, Chiapas state, Mexico. Tens of ... more

Photo: Rebecca Blackwell, Associated Press

Photo: Rebecca Blackwell, Associated Press

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In this June 19, 2014 photo, a Central American migrants emerge from side streets to crowd onto the tracks, as a northbound freight train arrives in the station in Arriaga, Chiapas state, Mexico. Tens of thousands of unaccompanied children have been apprehended crossing the U.S. Mexico border since October. Three-fourths of them are from Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador and most say they are fleeing pervasive gang violence and crushing poverty. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell) less

In this June 19, 2014 photo, a Central American migrants emerge from side streets to crowd onto the tracks, as a northbound freight train arrives in the station in Arriaga, Chiapas state, Mexico. Tens of ... more

Photo: Rebecca Blackwell, Associated Press

White House doubles funding request for border crisis

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(07-08) 09:27 PDT WASHINGTON -- The Obama administration asked Congress on Tuesday for $3.7 billion in emergency funds, nearly double its initial estimates, to speed processing of a flood of unaccompanied children and others from Central America crossing the U.S. border in Texas.

The funding request comes as the administration tries to straddle a growing divide between Democrats who see the situation as a refugee crisis and Republicans who view it primarily as an illegal border crossing crisis.

The administration said the money would go to:

-- Deterrence, "including increased detainment and removal of adults with children and increased immigration court capacity to speed cases."

-- Enforcement, including increased surveillance and prosecution of criminal networks.

Democrats are defending a law that Congress passed in 2008 at the end of the George W. Bush administration that was aimed at countering child trafficking but which some now contend has backfired.

The William Wilberforce Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act, which was supported both by liberals and conservative evangelicals, bars the U.S. from returning unaccompanied minors to their homeland if they come from anywhere but Mexico or Canada. Some believe the law is being exploited by criminals who advertise in Central America that children can cross the border without fear of being turned away.

House Democrats will fight any effort to weaken the law, said an aide to a Bay Area Democrat.

The Republican chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, Rep. Hal Rogers of Kentucky, welcomed the administration's funding request.

"Plainly, the situation for many of these unaccompanied children is extremely dire, and the United States has both a security and a moral obligation to help solve the crisis at hand," Rogers said. "It is clear that additional funding will be needed to ensure the proper care of these unaccompanied children, to enforce the law, and to further secure our border so that these problems can be mitigated in the short term. Our committee will focus on providing what is necessary to meet these ongoing needs."